Hockey referee Butch Mousseau, who suffered a head injury at the WCHA tournament last weekend in Grand Rapids, Mich., has died, WCHA commissioner Bill Robertson confirmed Friday.
Mousseau, 48, was injured at the WCHA Final Five during warmups before the Ferris State-Michigan Tech game. It was reported that he fell, hitting his head on the ice.
The Erie, Colo., native was later placed in a drug-induced coma at a hospital in Grand Rapids, The Denver Post reported. The WCHA does not require official to wear helmets during warmups and Mousseau was not wearing one at the time of the accident.
Gophers coach Don Lucia tweeted, "Saddened to hear of Butch Mousseau's passing. A great man and a great official gone far too soon."
Mousseau's wife, Macaire, spoke with the news website MLive.com on Sunday: "It's just shocking to me how it happened," she said. "I get the logistics of it all that he had his hands in his pockets and was just casually skating backward and tripped somehow. He didn't have an opportunity to break his fall and slammed his head."
